Career John Shepherd-Barron

the enfield branch of barclays bank, site of first cash machine



blue plaque on enfield barclays commemorating world s first cash machine

shepherd-barron joined de la rue in 1950s management trainee , grew become managing director of de la rue instruments (with mandate run down company).

he conceived idea self-service machine dispensing cash whilst lying in bath. considering problem of bank opening hours, having turned @ bank after closing time 1 day , found himself unable withdraw money. shepherd-barron has stated inspired chocolate vending machines: struck me there must way own money, anywhere in world or uk. hit upon idea of chocolate bar dispenser, replacing chocolate cash. pitched idea head of barclays bank on pink gin.

the first de la rue automatic cash system (dacs) machine, called barclaycash, installed outside enfield branch of barclays bank in north london in june 1967. first person withdraw cash actor reg varney, celebrity resident of enfield known part in number of popular television series. deployment of device outside of uk took place in zurich on november, 1967. called geldautomat . 

the dacs machines used cheque-like tokens (which guillotined size of normal cheque inside machine) had been impregnated radioactive compound of carbon-14. radioactive signal detected machine , matched against personal identification number (pin) entered on keypad. short-range beta emission carbon-14 detected, , determined radiation hazard acceptable have eat 136,000 such cheques have effect on . initially, pin length of 6 digits proposed; shepherd-barron tested system on wife, caroline, found longest string of numbers remember four. result, four-digit pins chosen , atms expanded across globe, became world standard. withdrawals first barclaycash machines limited maximum of £10, quite enough wild weekend according shepherd-barron.

shepherd-barron received order of british empire in 2005 new year s honours list services banking inventor of automatic cash dispenser .

various rival cash dispenser systems began emerge. scottish inventor, james goodfellow, working @ smiths industries, commssioned chubb locks work on new cash machine. anthony davies, developed new system whereby user s pin number stored on reusable bank card, rather on single-use cheques. system patented gb1197183 , us3905461 , cited subsequent patents prior art device . goodfellow s pin system resembled modern atms more shepherd-barron s machine. however, shepherd-barron s machine first installed, if few days.